FREE DIVING INTO A VOLCANIC LAKE<br />WITH PIX AND VID<br />By Shuk Yee Tsang<br />A freediver plunged through layers of warm freshwater and saltwater into a sulfuric volcanic lake where the sand behaves like quicksand.<br />The extraordinary dive was filmed in Barracuda Lake, Coron, Philippines, by Adam Stern from Australia, an eight-time national freediving record holder and instructor trainer.<br />He explained that Barracuda Lake is a volcanic crater lake where freshwater fills the first 13 meters at around 29°C, before turning to saltwater at 36°C. <br />The deeper divers go, the warmer it gets, reaching about 33°C near the layer at 40 meters deep, where visibility drops into darkness.<br />Adam said: “This is definitely not a normal ocean floor!”<br />“This looks like an ordinary ocean floor, but it’s not. <br />"It’s Barracuda Lake in Coron and nothing here is what it seems. <br />"The lake is made up of freshwater for the first 13 meters, then saltwater as the temperature increases.<br /> "The deeper you go, the warmer it gets all the way down to a black cloud of sulfur. <br />"The Barracuda give the lake its name, and it’s filled with incredible limestone structures and a strange, shifting lake floor, the closest thing to quicksand I’ve ever seen.”<br />END
